FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

8/1/2012

New AVMA website transforms members’ online experience

(SCHAUMBURG, Illinois) August 1, 2012 – Customized home pages, vastly improved online networking services and the ability for members to provide input on association policy decisions are the cornerstones of the American Veterinary Medical Association’s (AVMA) new website, which launched today. The website redesign helps make the AVMA’s numerous resources more readily available to members, improves functionality and enhances the overall online experience. Members can now build their own homepage from a multitude of topics of personal interest, and the process of signing up for newsletters and other resources has been streamlined.

The AVMA Communications Division conducted extensive research and member surveys to determine what they wanted from the AVMA website, how it should be organized and how it should work.

“One of the greatest advantages of the new website design is that we will ask every member what is most important to them – in terms of services, issues and information – and then the website will generate an individualized home page that gives each member the excellent content they tell us they want,” explains Kim Kishbaugh, head of AVMA electronic communications. “Each member’s user experience will be uniquely tailored to their interests and needs.”

The new website design also strives to make the AVMA’s numerous resources easier to manage for member veterinarians. To this end, the new website includes the Knowledge Base, a system that allows members to organize the AVMA’s thousands of resources on a single topic, discipline or species in one place, including everything from AVMA policies and press releases to backgrounders and brochures.

Research indicated that veterinarians wanted to use AVMA.org to more easily connect with their colleagues and AVMA leaders. In an effort to meet this need, the new AVMA website has an improved AVMA Network of Animal Health (NOAH), which offers AVMA discussion groups for veterinarians. NOAH is a place where veterinarians can ask questions of their colleagues, share experiences, exchange diagnoses and treatment information, and consult with specialists. Members can also use NOAH as a forum to discuss such topics as the work-life balance. In addition, NOAH also provides contact information for AVMA leadership, so each member can use NOAH to easily share their comments, suggestions or concerns with association leaders.

“This new website is really the beginning of a new era for the AVMA. It will make it easier for our members to engage the association and for us to interact with them. I see the unveiling of our new website as the kickoff to the AVMA’s 150th anniversary, which we will be celebrating over the coming year,” says Dr. Ted Cohn, chair of the AVMA Executive Board. “This entirely redesigned website has been the dream of the members of the Executive Board; it is very exciting to see the launch occur.”

The new AVMA website will also improve the online visitor experience for members of the public. The Public Resources portion of the website provides thousands of pages of content that will be useful to pet owners and others who are seeking information about everything from pet health to food safety.

Today’s unveiling is phase 1 of a three-phase launch of the new and improved www.avma.org website. The redesign of the website is expected to be completed by April 1, 2013.

For more information, please visit www.avma.org.

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The AVMA, founded in 1863, is one of the oldest and largest
veterinary medical organizations in the world, with more than
88,000 member veterinarians worldwide engaged in a wide variety
of professional activities and dedicated to the art and science
of veterinary medicine.